Conventional fan shrouds can improve airflow through a fan installed and/or operating on a machine. Fan shrouds can reduce airflow recirculation from high pressure to low pressure side of the fan, can reduce airflow entrance & exit losses in and out of the fan, and/or can reduce airflow separation and vortices near the fan blade tips. Improving fan shroud designs to maximize operation of the fan can be desirable.
Additionally, machines are generally compact and do not have much space for large components. Improving fan shroud designs to reduce the space needed to mount a fan shroud can also be desirable.
Japanese Patent No. 4269326 (JP '326), titled “Shroud of Cooling Fan for Radiator,” purports to address improving fan shroud performance. The JP '326 patent describes a bell-mouth shaped fan shroud positioned between a radiator and a cooling fan, where the fan shroud design includes a ratio of 40% against the width of the fan's blades. The design of the JP '326 patent, however, provides a relatively large space requirement, and therefore the space that the fan shroud takes up on the machine can be less than optimal. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved bell mouth fan shroud and methods of designing and placing the bell mouth fan shroud.